USDA Pyramid Scheme

Grain, it’s as American as apple pie. Or at least the crust on that pie.

But is it good for us? If we believe the USDA food pyramid, we should be eating 6-11 servings on grain a day! That’s SIX to ELEVEN servings of rice, cereal, bread and pasta a day! And we wonder why as a nation we’re obese, depressed, suffer from diabetes and have low energy. Yikes!

As for veggies — 3-5 servings according to the government, fruit 2-4 servings (does that include fruit juice? I know some companies that seem to think so) and finally you get to have 2-3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and beans.

Oh, and use fats sparingly. And saturated fats — virtually none.

Ugh. This is a recipe for disaster. I’ve already blogged about what this kind of low-fat, high grain diet can do to your mental health.

Notice there is a direct correlation between what taxpayers subsidize and where it is on the food pyramid — translation: the nut lobby is not that powerful.

For example, meat, poultry, vegetables and fruit get no direct subsidies — they are ineligible. (Although you can argue that factory-farmed beef and poultry are subsidized because their feed is. Grass-fed meat and pastured poultry is not subsidized at all.)

The dairy industry has received $3.6 billion in subsidies between 1995-2006. Does that seem like a lot? Not when you consider that corn alone has received $56 billion for that same time period, and the corn, wheat, rice and soybean industries have pocketed more than $103 billion of taxpayer money during that span (according to the USDA and the Environmental Working Group).

The grain industry has Congress by the balls. Click here to read one farmer’s story of how he was penalized for growing fruit on a field once used  for corn.

So what’s wrong? You might ask. Maybe the government knows just how vital grains are so they subsidize them! Um, no.

This is a topic worthy of a tome, or at least a dissertation. But let me just sum up my main point: there is nothing nutritious, and I mean NOTHING, that is found in any grain that cannot be found in meat, dairy, nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables — and better. And by better I mean more of whatever the nutrient or vitamin is and more easily absorbed by the human body. The only real benefits of grain is that a) they are cheap and b) they can be easily transported and stored for long periods of time.

The Mayo Clinic states on their website that “grains are an essential part of a healthy diet.” Really? Why? I’m not just picking on the Mayo Clinic but using them as a stand-in for what is accepted American dietary “wisdom.” According to medical school’s website at Northwestern University, for example, “Whole grains provide the most nutrient-dense source of complex carbohydrates.” Um, no. I’ll show you below why this is just completely false and easily refutable. But back to the Mayo Clinic– their website goes on to state that, “All types of grains are good sources of complex carbohydrates, various vitamins and minerals, and are naturally low in fat” and are “sources of fiber and other important nutrients, such as selenium, potassium and magnesium.”

Let’s get the complex carbohydrate thing out of the way, cuz this one’s very easy. I touched on this in my post Fat is Phat. You have many, many non-grain choices, none of which are refined. Here’s a smattering: potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash such as butternut and acorn, lentils and beans of all kinds.

Now let’s move down the Mayo Clinic’s list. Fiber there are 3.5 grams of fiber in one cup of brown rice. There’s 4 grams in a cup of oatmeal.

There’s 22 grams in HALF a cup of cooked chickpeas. And one avocado has 14 grams of fiber. One cup of raspberries has 8 grams of fiber and half a cup of dates has 7 grams.

Grains:0 Non-grains:1

Moving on to selenium. One cup of brown rice provides 19.1 mcg of selenium and one cup of quinoa has 5 mcg. How does meat stack up? Two ounces of lamb have 122.6 mcg and two ounces of beef have 94 mcg.

Grains:0 Non-grains:2

What about potassium? The grain with the most potassium is quinoa — about 315 mg for one cup of cooked. One cup of cooked brown rice contains 154 mg.

However, one cup of lima beans has a whopping 1,000 mg of potassium, one baked potato has 900 mg, and one banana has more than 400 mg of potassium. Eating one half a filet of salmon (about 200 grams) will give you almost 1,000 mg of potassium.

Grains:0 Non-grains:3

Magnesium? One cup of cooked brown rice has 84 mg while 1/4 cup of sesame seeds (Tahini, anyone?) has 126 mg, 1/4 cup of almonds has almost 100 and 1 cup of cooked spinach has 156 mg.

Grains:0 Non-grains:4

0 for 4. So why, oh why, do we worship at the altar of grain? Why isn’t the government telling us to eat 6-11 servings of vegetables a day and 2-3 servings of grain, if any? Can anyone really make the argument that grains are healthier than vegetables?

To understand why, we need to follow the green — and not the collard greens or the spinach greens, but the kind that end up in campaign contribution coffers. The Cato Institute has an older, but insightful piece that might help you understand how big agri-business has managed to secure its place at the fat part of our food pyramid, entitled: Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study In Corporate Welfare.

I have much more to say about grains, and will do so in upcoming posts. On a personal note, it was a big shift in thinking for me — when I started to look at grains as a special treat to supplement an already nutritious diet and not as an essential part of that diet.

What about you? Have you always thought of grains as a health food? Has this post affected your thinking at all?